United States Presidential Election, 2016
The United States presidential election of 2016 was the 58th quadrennial American presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. In a landslide victory, the Democrat ticket of U.S. Senator from Vermont, Bernard "Bernie" Sanders and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Texas, Wendy Davis, defeated the Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Sanders took office as the 45th President, and Davis as the 48th Vice President, on January 20, 2017. Incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama was ineligible to run for a third term due to the term limits established by the 22nd Amendment. Concurrent with the presidential election, Senate, House, and many gubernatorial and state and local elections were also held on November 8th. |- ! colspan="2" | 538 members of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win |- !Turnout |68.2%1 0.8 pp |- | colspan="2" | |- | colspan="2" | |} Sanders secured the Democratic nomination in an upset victory after fending off a primary challenge from former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who had a sharp decline in the polls early may, when it was revealed in leaks that Tom Perez, the chairman of the DNC, had colluded with the Clinton campaign in order to ensure her a victory. After this information was revealed, Bernie took a lead in the polls ahead of Clinton, who had been the frontrunner, and the latter never recovered. Amidst a wide Republican field, Trump emerged as the front-runner, defeating Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Jeb Bush and other candidates. Sanders ran on a populist platform, promoting ideas such as Medicare for all, free public college, implementing a federal living wage tied to inflation, ending US military interventions and legalizing marijuana at the federal level, whereas Trump promised to "Make America Great Again" by implementing a populist but nationalist agenda, opposing political correctness, illegal immigration, and many free-trade agreements. The tone of the general election campaign was widely characterized as divisive and demonstrated the polarisation of each of the two main political parties of America, with both candidates running on populist platforms. Trump made numerous controversial remarks about race and immigration, was accused of inciting violence against protestors at his rallies, and faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct (which he denied), but was also able to garner extensive free media coverage. Meanwhile, Sanders, whose public approval ratings had increased sharply since he became the Democratic nominee, was subject to numerous attacks from the Democratic establishment, including his primary challenger, Hillary Clinton, as well as house minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, although Senate minority leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama remained neutral, and later, both endorsed him. Some polls showed Sanders sustainably leading in many red states, such as North Carolina, Indiana, and Arizona, although both the Republican and Democratic parties widely dismissed the legitimacy of those polls. Voters selected members of the Electoral College in each state, in most cases by "winner-takes-all" plurality; those state electors, in turn. voted for a new president and vice president on December 19, 2016. Sanders won in a landslide, and became the first candidate in US history to receive more than 70 million votes, and so far the most votes, surpassing the number of votes Barack Obama won in 2008. Sanders received 72,581,236 nationwide, whilst Trump in comparison received 58,640,296. Sanders won by 13.9 million, the largest margin any candidate has ever won by. Sanders won 31 states and Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, with a total of 383 electors, or 71% of the 538 available. He won the three perennial swing states of Florida, Ohio, and Iowa, as well as winning in Indiana, the home-state of Mike Pence, and winning in the states of Missouri and Arkansas, which had not gone for a Democrat. since the 1996 presidential election for Bill Clinton, and pulled off an upset victory in Alaska, which had only gone for a Democrat once, in 1964, for Lyndon B Johnson's landslide. where he benefited greatly from voter disenfranchisement on the Republican side, as it was obvious that Trump had lost, and thus, did not turn out to vote in as large numbers as election cycles prior. He also won Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, which was last won by Barack Obama in 2008. Leading up to the election, a Trump victory was considered likely by some media forecasts, many predicted Bernie would not be able to appeal to most American voters. However, not only did he win the states previously mentioned, but he came with 4.8% and 6.5% of winning the states of Texas and West Virginia respectively, two states thought previously to be safe Republican. After his victory was assured, some conservative commentators suggested that there had been mass voter fraud amongst Democratic voters, notably Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Tucker Carlson and Stuart Varney, all of Fox News, suggesting that many Democrats had voted for Bernie more than once and that people illegible to vote, such as those under 18, had also voted. The information that conservative commentators, who were in disbelief surrounding Sanders' win, gave, was that in six states; Alaska, Texas, Georgia, Missouri, Indiana and West Virginia, the Democratic turnout was much higher than in 2012, increasing by 15% in Georgia to 23% greater in West Virginia, and that more people voted for Bernie Sanders in those states than the states had registered democrats. This was dubbed "Turnoutgate" by the media, although this was quickly disproved by electoral officials, who reassured commentators that no electoral fraud had taken place, although there had been an attempt of electoral fraud in the state of Indiana to suppress the Sanders vote in urban areas and to give an advantage to Trump vote in more rural areas of the state. Republican candidate Donald Trump refused to concede the election to Sanders, despite being defeated by almost 14 million in the popular vote and by over 200 electoral votes in the electoral college. In the Electoral College vote on December 19, two electors voted against their pledged candidates: two against Trump and none against Sanders. Ultimately, Sanders received 383 electoral votes and Trump garnered 147, while Ted Cruz and John Kasich received one. Sanders was the oldest president ever to be inaugurated, while Davis was the third woman to be the vice-presidential nominee of a major American party and the first woman to be elected the vice-president.